Alex (BIG Northwest Book 2) Read online

  Alex, book 2 of the BIG Northwest series

  Copyright 2020 by Janice M. Whiteaker.

  www.janicemwhiteaker.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First printing, 2020

  Cover design by Robin Harper at Wicked by Design.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  EPILOGUE

  ONE

  “ARE YOU COMING or not?” Alex stood just inside Charlie’s front door, watching as her younger sister stared down the row of felines draped across the thrifted furniture filling her living room.

  “I’m just not sure who to take today.” Charlie already had one of her five rescue cats tucked under her arm. Mr. Darcey’s long tail flicked as he patiently waited for her to choose his companion of the day. “I feel like Dashwood could really use the socialization, but Willoughby hasn’t been to the shop in weeks.”

  “Oh my God.” Alex marched to the couch and scooped up both cats, managing to balance them along with the folio Jude gave her for Mother’s Day. “Let’s go.”

  Charlie smiled brightly. “Okay.” She opened the door, letting Alex pass through before following her out and locking the door behind them. “Maybe I should get some sort of wagon or something. Then I could take everyone.”

  “Please don’t get a cat wagon.” Alex walked a little faster, hoping her significantly more relaxed sister would follow suit.

  She had a list of things to do a mile long and it was growing with each passing second.

  Charlie’s shoulders slumped a little. “You’re right.” She sighed. “It would be useless in the snow.”

  “That’s not wh—”

  Alex stopped in the middle of the newly-poured sidewalk leading to the ‘downtown’ area of Shadow Pine.

  Charlie stepped in close, eyes glued to the exact same spot Alex’s were. “Who is that?”

  The man propped against the door of her office glanced their way, almost as if he heard the question. His reflective sunglasses glinted in the early morning sun as he straightened, coming to his full height.

  “He’s tall, isn’t he?” Charlie pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, eyes glued to the guy giving them a single-handed wave.

  Alex couldn’t really blame her. The man was everything women were trained to want. The quintessential tall, dark, and handsome that led so many unsuspecting women down a sadly miserable path.

  “He looks like a pain in the ass.” Alex adjusted the cats under her arms and marched straight for the man loitering in her space.

  Her world.

  “You’re lost.” It was an easy observation. One she’d made countless times over the years, always correctly.

  Until Craig showed up.

  “Definitely not lost.” Tall, Dark and Handsome shot her a smile filled with perfectly straight teeth. “I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

  What was it with men lately? So sure they knew better than she did. “This is definitely not where you’re supposed to be.” She tried to point at the word PRIVATE lettered across the glass of her office door, but nearly dropped Dashwood in the process, fumbling the tabby as she tried to regain her hold of him. “Damn it.”

  “Don’t drop Dashwood.” Charlie immediately grabbed for her newest adoptee. “He doesn’t know how to get home yet.”

  Tall, Dark, and Handsome dropped the leather folder and coffee cup he’d been holding, not even noticing as the cup fell on its side and rolled away, pouring out the barely tan liquid. “I got him.” He immediately scooped up Dashwood and held him up, looking the cat eye to eye. “How ya doin’, buddy?”

  “His name is Dashwood.” Charlie held Mr. Darcey close to her chest, stroking down his fur as she watched Tall, Dark, and Handsome with wary eyes. “He’s coming to work with me today.”

  “Just around the corner then?” Tall, Dark, and Handsome lifted his brows as he backed toward the corner leading to Charlie’s shop. “Shall we?”

  “That would be fantastic.” Alex shoved Willoughby at him. “Then you can find your way back to wherever you came from.” She gave him a wave. “Bye-bye.” She unlocked her door and ducked into her office, escaping the temptation to study his face a little closer.

  Notice the sharp line of his jaw.

  The straight angle of his almost Grecian nose.

  Alex switched on her computer as she settled into the small space she’d claimed as her own. The frown on her face glared back at her as the machine came to life.

  She didn’t have time to be irritated this morning. Didn’t have time to ponder the potential heritage of a man with hair so dark and thick you could almost see it growing out of his freshly shaven face.

  There were spreadsheets to update. Bills to pay and record. Accounts to balance.

  And whatever else her sisters found for her to do today.

  Alex was nearly through the stack of bills to be sent out when the door to her office opened. “Knock knock.”

  Her head snapped up so fast the muscles in her neck twinged. “What are you doing?”

  Tall, Dark, and Handsome was back, and looking no worse for the wear. “What I’m supposed to be doing.” He held out a cup. “I believe this is yours.”

  Alex eyed the reusable cup Jude got her two Christmases ago. “Where did you get that?”

  “Your sister said I should bring it since I was coming this way.” He eased it closer, dark brows lifting over the chocolate brown eyes that were hidden by sunglasses earlier. “I think it’s tea.”

  “Which sister?”

  His lips eased into a hesitant smile. “I have to admit I don’t know everyone’s names yet.” He set the cup on her desk. “She had a little boy with her.”

  Damn Danny.

  “And why is it you are here?”

  The man lowered his long frame into one of the deep green armchairs across from her desk. “In Shadow Pine?”

  “No.” Alex tossed the pen in her hand onto the stack of envelopes and checks she was supposed to be dealing with. “Yes. But specifically,” she stabbed one finger into the center of her desk, “here. Why are you in my office?”

  His smile lost its hesitant edge, spreading into a confident grin that displayed deep dimples on both cheeks.

  For the love of—

  Dimples too? Really?

  Of course dimples too.

  “Did your brother not let you know I was coming?”

  Her stomach dropped. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  This was Ed?

  Ed the accountant?

  “No.” Alex stood up, sending her rollered chair sailing a few feet across the light wood floor. “No. This isn’t going to work.” She went straight out the door, leaving Ed the unacceptably attractive accountant staring after her.

  Danny stood in front of her shop, watering the line of flowers blooming
in the window boxes.

  “Where is he?” Alex glanced at the line of people already collecting outside Sam’s bakery as they gawked her way. She shoved on an uncomfortable smile and lifted one hand in a wave. “Morning.”

  Having other people in their town was taking some getting used to.

  She walked faster, lowering her voice as she closed in on her sister. “Where is he?”

  Danny thumbed over one shoulder to the building at her back. “He’s in there.”

  Alex changed trajectory, going straight for the double doors leading to Danny’s taxidermy and processing shop.

  “He’s got back-up.”

  “He’ll need it.” Alex yanked open the door.

  Lance stood at the counter, arms across his wide chest. “Already?”

  “What in the hell, Lance?” Alex’s heels banged against the floor as she went straight for her half-brother. “I thought you were bringing in someone who could help?”

  “Ed can help. He’s got a master’s in business accounting and ten years experience.” Lance lifted his brows. “What more do you want?”

  Less. She wanted less.

  Less height.

  Less jawline.

  Less five-o’clock shadow.

  Less motherfucking dimples.

  “I want someone else.” She crossed her arms, mimicking her brother’s stance. “I want a woman.”

  “No.”

  “No?” Alex dropped her arms to her sides and slowly prowled closer to where her newly-discovered brother stood. “I think you are forgetting something very important.”

  Craig and JD each took a half step back, leaving Lance the only one holding his ground. He lifted a brow at her. “I’m not the only one.”

  “And what is it you think I’m forgetting?” She was used to men underestimating her.

  While it was frustrating, the fact also gave her an edge.

  Lance leaned down as she came to stand right in front of him. “You’re forgetting that I’m not fucking scared of you.”

  “You probably should be.”

  Alex whipped around to find Ed the accountant standing just inside the door of Danny’s shop. He shot her a quick grin. “The woman is wicked with a spreadsheet.”

  “No.” She pointed his way. “No looking at my spreadsheets.”

  “I’m not going to be much help to you if I can’t look at your,” his dark eyes barely dipped, never sliding below the line of her neck, “spreadsheets.”

  Alex pressed one hand to the spot just below where his gaze stopped. “I don’t need you to look at my spreadsheets.” She twisted on a smirk. “And I doubt you could be any help with them anyway.”

  “I can assure you I am quite helpful, Alex.”

  She didn’t mean to take a step back.

  Didn’t mean to suck in the gasp of air his comment forced upon her.

  This was why Ed the accountant needed to be replaced.

  Now.

  She didn’t like the idea of bringing an outsider into Shadow Pine from the beginning, and now that this was who Lance wanted to bring into their world?

  It was unacceptable.

  The door behind Ed opened and a familiar face walked in.

  The gasp from earlier eased free on a sigh of relief.

  Sam’s blue eyes scanned Ed from head to toe, inspecting him like he was a smear of questionable brown grossness, trying to decide if he was the mud variety of smear.

  Or the shit variety.

  “Who are you?”

  Ed immediately held his hand Sam’s way. “Edward Sweeten.” He flashed that devastatingly dimpled smile on her older sister, clearly thinking it would get him somewhere. “I’m here to help Alex.”

  Sam’s gaze leveled on the hand he still extended, lingering a second before coming to meet Alex’s. “She looks thrilled about it.”

  “I was just explaining that I don’t need his help.” Alex stood a little taller, tipped her chin a little higher. Sam would most certainly have her back in this.

  “She would know.” Sam appeared completely unaffected by being so close to Ed the accountant. Like she hadn’t already looked him straight in his handsome face.

  Wasn’t close enough to smell the divine scent of his cologne.

  It was one of the downfalls of being like they were. Alex could smell him clear across the room. The rich, almost smoky scent taunted her.

  Teased her with all the bad ideas men like Ed inflicted upon women.

  Just not women like her.

  She saw the Ed’s of the world coming a mile away.

  “You do need his help, Alex. He’s the best there is.”

  Alex slowly turned to face her brother. “I’m the best there is.”

  Usually a comment like that would send a man scrambling, confused and more than a little frightened by a woman who owned her worth.

  Not Lance, though. He just took a deep breath and blew it back out his nose loud and long. “You are working yourself to death. Let me help you.”

  “You won’t even know I’m there.”

  Alex snapped her head toward Ed. “Highly unlikely.” She turned her glare back on her brother.

  “Give it a week. If you still want him to leave, then he will leave.” Lance’s jaw set.

  Like he thought he was getting one up on her.

  “Fine.” Alex turned. “Come on, Ed. Time to go.” She went right past him and out the door, leaving Ed the accountant to follow behind in her wake.

  Alex didn’t stop until she got back to her office, finally turning to dish out the orders she had for her new assistant.

  The one who would soon be so miserable he’d happily pack his bags and run from Shadow Pine.

  But Ed was not behind her like she thought he would be.

  He wasn’t outside either.

  Not on the sidewalk or anywhere she could see by peeking through the window toward Danny’s shop where she last saw him.

  Ed was nowhere in sight.

  Which was... good. What she wanted.

  Maybe he was already realizing this was not what he signed up for. That Shadow Pine was not a comfortable place for men like him to be.

  Alex dropped into her chair, stretched the tension always living in her neck, and went back to the never-ending pile of work accumulated on her desk.

  Two hours later she was completely engrossed in the spreadsheet for Sam’s bakery when her door opened. The almost instant growl of her stomach meant Charlie was there to remind her to eat lunch.

  Alex stood from her seat, stretching both arms high in the air. The grunt of the movement tightened to a squeak when she realized it was not Charlie standing inside her office.

  Ed stood in the sunlight streaking through the large window she insisted on having in her workspace, the beams of brightness making his tanned skin appear almost gold. His expensive pants and perfectly-pressed button-up looked exactly the same as they did when she first laid eyes on him.

  The expression though, that had changed.

  The easy-going smile he wore before was gone, replaced by a gaze that was serious enough to make her do a double-take.

  “It seems I led you to believe I’m something I’m not, Alex.” Ed walked into her space with long, leisurely steps, each one bringing him closer to where she stood behind her desk.

  “And what is it I believe you are, Ed?” Just his name pissed her off. It was as misleading as everything else about him.

  The clothes. The face. The body. The package was immaculate. The kind of perfect design that always led the owner to believe he was superior.

  Above.

  Alex held her breath as he closed in, hoping to avoid the surprisingly manly scent she knew was coming with him.

  “The kind of man who falls all over a beautiful woman.” Ed stood right in front of her, his tall frame forcing her to tip her chin to hold his gaze.

  Which she intended to do.

  “I don’t take orders from anyone, Alex. Not even you.”

  Well.


  That was unexpected.

  She straightened even more, crossing her arms. “Then why are you here?”

  “I’m here for your brother. I promised him I would help you and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

  “I don’t want your help, Ed.” She might be drowning. Might be working late into the night. Might be ready to lose her mind over the never-ending workload.

  But she’d do all those things before she dealt with another man like the one in front of her.

  “I. Don’t. Care.” Each word was clipped and clear as it passed through his lips.

  Alex dropped into her chair as he leaned closer.

  Ed rested one hand on each arm of the seat and bent to line his eyes with hers. “You can play nice or not. I don’t care. I’m here to do a job and I will do it.” His dark eyes moved over her face. “Every other man in the world might jump when you snap your fingers, but I won’t. Not ever.”

  He straightened, his gaze never leaving her face.

  “And my name is Edward.”

  TWO

  “HOW’D IT GO?” Lance looked up as Edward walked into the mobile office.

  “Like you said it would.” He dropped onto the sofa running along one end of the trailer. “She’s real excited I’m here.”

  Lance snorted. “Don’t take it personally.”

  “It’s hard not to.” Edward stretched his legs out along the linoleum masquerading as plank wood. “At least the one with cats doesn’t seem to hate me.”

  “Charlie’s just the best at hiding it. She’ll sneak up on you out of nowhere.” Lance turned back to his computer. “At least with Sam and Alex you know what you’re getting.”

  “Great.” Edward dropped his head back, letting it rest on the back of the pull-out serving as his bed until he could figure out another option. “You’re really starting to make me regret coming out here.”

  “Liar.” Lance didn’t miss a beat with his accurate assessment. “You wanted the hell out of Virginia. Don’t try to bullshit me.”

  “Just because I was tired of being there doesn’t mean I’m excited about being here.”

  It was another lie. One he was happy to admit.

  This place was fucking amazing. The mountains. The trees. The air. All of it was exactly what he needed after the past year.